“Austria became the latest European country to grapple with the threat of terrorism as it arrested three people with links to al Qaeda who posted an online video threatening attacks against Austria and Germany.” (AP News)
Since September 11th, 2001 there have been scores of “incidents” involving radical Muslims in
Europe. There was the violent reaction to a Danish newspaper’s printing of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that insinuated Muslims often over-react violently to trivial events (like cartoon caricatures) that they alone are allowed to call offensive. There was the Madrid bombings in 2004 that changed the outcome of that year’s elections in Spain, and led to a complete withdrawal of the Spaniards in the War on Terror.These “incidents” range in size, scope, and damage from this week’s problem-free arrest of three 2nd generation Austrian-born Arabs, to the London bombings that claimed more than fifty lives on 7/7/05. Paris, Copenhagen, Hamburg and many other cities have fallen victim to the not-so-peaceful actions of radical adherents to the “religion of peace.”
Here in the United States during that time, despite what John Edwards or The New York Times say, we’ve had it pretty good. Last fall, in response to disingenuous calls for the non-existent torture of enemy prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to stop, President Bush divulged the fact that pre-emptive interrogations of captured terrorists (like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Muhammad) had yielded information that prevented at least four different attacks on American soil before they occurred.
Regardless your impression of the man, President Bush and his administration has kept us safe for six years. We keep hearing that its not “if”, but “when” in terms of the next cataclysmic event here in the States. While likely true, we’ve been hearing that since September 12th, 2001 and it has yet to be realized. If Bush gets the blame for every single thing that goes wrong on this planet, he at least deserves some credit for adverting disaster thus far at home.
My point in bringing up our relative safety in relation to that of European nations is this: maybe, just maybe, the unwavering message from the White House since 9/11 that this jihadist enemy wants all of Western Civilization to fall under an Islamic caliphate (kingdom) is as true for Bjorn
and Pierre as they are for Brad and Angelina. In fact, maybe even more so for the former rather than the latter.Wait, but I thought terrorists only hate George Bush, the United States, and Israel? Why won’t they leave the Old World alone? Don’t countries like Germany allow immigrants to come and live for free on the government’s dime while they spend their days in radical mosques plotting terrorism (this is literally how and where the attacks of 9/11 were planned)?
You see, Europe is in all but name a Socialist state. They’ve adopted the secular-progressive, liberal view of humanity and government that is the “paper tiger” equivalent of the Chicago Cubs starting lineup in they eyes of a Cubs fan each Spring Training. What begins as, "Hey, on paper this team looks like a winner,” by the end of most every season turns into, “How in the world are these bums even allowed on the same baseball diamond with real teams?”
Liberalism, Socialism, and their crazy uncle, Communism, only work in the hypothetical world. Their policies fail every time they are implemented (i.e. the USSR, the “Great Society” under LBJ, etc.) and can only be kept alive when aided by the inevitable seizure of total control and power by the originally “egalitarian” oligarchy or dictatorship (i.e. Fidel’s Cuba, Hugo’s Venezuela, and present-day Communist China) that had convinced everyone it was a good idea in the first place. But, human nature being what it is, we (okay, Democrats) keep thinking that “if only I were the one in charge” these inherently flawed ideologies might work.
Europeans live in an eternal state of denial where their good intentions (i.e. curbing of economic growth, willingness to put the arbitrary standard of political correctness ahead of national security, and divorcing of almost all ties with the Judeo-Christian heritage that literally spawned the once-great Western Free World as we knew it) will somehow turn things around for a continent that is not-so-slowly being rendered inconsequential as China, India, and the United States economically and demographically "pull away" in power and size.
Consider this: Europe has what American Liberal Democrats passionately advocate for our own country. High taxes. Big government. Nationalized Healthcare. Four-day work weeks. Perpetual adolescence where marriage and children are frowned upon until you’ve had your fill of nightclubs, one-night stands, and penicillin. A weakened military that necessitates other foreign powers (America, in Europe’s case) fighting their battles for them. The need to consolidate national sovereignty and band together with more than a dozen other nations just to keep up with a Free Market economy (i.e. European Union).Man, they got it all, eh, Hillary?
When it comes to terrorism, the open-border, open-armed pluralism of Fortress Europa seems only to encourage continued attacks, not quell them. Why is that do you think? Are they just unlucky? Is it simply because the terrorists are lazy and don’t want to travel across the pond again for another shot at the Sears Tower or Space Needle? Do jihadists hate the Euro exchange-rate as much as American tourists do?
My own personal, fascinating theory is that the Arab-Muslim mindset is such that they prey on the weak and feeble. I’m picturing a Discovery Channel documentary on hyenas set in the African Serengeti. Knowing full well that a frontal attack against an adult Zebra or even baby elephant would be foolish and painful, the cunning (cowardly) scavengers gang-up on the crippled animal in a herd and nip at the heels of the larger creature until it collapses from exhaustion.
Europe is the easy score. Europe has so many self-inflicted wounds that it has become easy pickings for the radical Islamo-fascists (hyenas). They attacked America on September 11th because they saw from the time of the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut in 1982, to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, to the American Embassy bombing in Kenya in 1998, to the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in 2000, that America was, as Osama Bin Laden himself told ABC News in 1998, a “paper tiger.”
But then something they weren’t counting on changed after that day in September six years ago. The American President that most had written off as a bumbling dunce rallied the unparalleled will of the United States and unexpectedly parted ways with the appeasement-rich policies of his predecessor (think: cigar). He declared to the world, “You’re either on the side of freedom or the side of tyranny, but you better pick a side.”
He passed counter-terror measures like the Patriot Act (which simply lets the FBI and CIA treat terrorists like they treat the mafia). He received the confidence and votes of the American people, the United States Congress, and the United Nations Security Council to conduct a pre-emptive attack on a de-stabilizing force in the most unstable region of the world. He stood firm while nearly every other world leader found comfortable chairs in which they could play the role of armchair quarterbacks from.
We all know that nothing in life is perfect, and that even the people we love most dearly let us down from time to time. Mistakes have been made, but our President, Congress, and courageous military (with little thanks to the opinion poll-crazy Left) have protected us where European Prime Ministers, Presidents, Parliaments, and “peace-keeping” troops could not protect their own.
Don’t lose your resolve when you hear fear-mongers throwing around words like “wire-tapping” and “water-boarding”. Of course we must hold our elected officials accountable, but it is our duty to be grateful and appreciative when they do the primary job for which they were created: the protection of the citizenry.
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